Crime drops in borough commander’s first year in Harrow

Harrow’s police commander has overseen a drop in crime of more than 15 per cent in the year since he started.

Chief Superintendent Simon Ovens became borough commander of Harrow this time last year.

For the past 12 months while he has been in charge of the borough the number of serious crimes has dropped by 15.6 per cent compared to the year before.

There has been a drop in burglary of 19 per cent despite a spike in offences at the beginning of the year.

The number of burglaries fell following the arrest and conviction of four gangs operating in the borough.

The borough commander said: “It has been a fantastic year and I have really enjoyed driving down crime in the borough.

"I am particularly proud of the all the hard work of my officers who have made this possible and the support they have given to the community.

“We are well on our way to becoming the safest borough in London. In my time here I have been really pleased with the work we have done with our partner organisations and the support we have had from the public.

“Compared to the other boroughs I have worked in I think the relationship we have with our partners in is unprecedented.

“The days of action we have had with the council, fire service, customs and the Home office means we can have a huge impact to the community.”

In June last year, Chief Supt Ovens announced his pledge to make Harrow the safest borough in three years focusing on seven neighbourhood crimes set out by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC).

These include violence with injury, robbery, burglary, theft of a motor vehicle, theft from a motor vehicle, theft from a person and criminal damage.

However in the previous year the number of reported incidents of domestic violence has gone up by 20 per cent.

Mr Ovens said: “I think this is a good sign, showing people who are affected by domestic violence are willing to come forward and have confidence in police.

“I don’t think it shows there are more cases of domestic violence, just they are being reported.

“We have had some serious cases in the last year which have been publicised which I think shows we will take any incident seriously.”

Comments (1)

The Borough Commander's vision of making ours the safest London Borough in three years is music to our ears and very much in line with our wishes.Harrow Police deserve a big pat on the back for the crime reduction achieved thus far,in his first year here.He has clearly found that partnership working is the key to our success in cutting down crime.

Of course,we cannot afford to be complacent and must carry on working tirelessly,hand-in-h
and with our police to make sure we achieve the target we have set ourselves.We have just overtaken Bexley and are about to go past Merton--the Borough Coammander's home ground!He is hell bent on getting us there.

Thanks to the wonderful works being carried out by all sorts of groups made up of ordinary citizens in our borough,in particular our Neighbourhood Champions,we are making it more than possible for our Borough Commander to achieve this goal,sonner rather than later.

Domestic Violence is definitely one that needs more efforts from all of us to tackle.Increased reporting is agood thing but we must ensure that we manage to make the victims safe and aslo help PREVENT this in the first case.

We hope that many more "Street briefings" will be held on our street corners as they have gone down a treat with local residents and made our neighbourhood policing gel in a more meaningful way.Well worth the money and time spent,not to mention confidence in the local bobby going up smartly.

We hope to see many more initiatives where the local public can step up and assist our police officers to keep our local neighbourhoods and borough free of crime.

PREVENTION is really important as is following tips fed to us regularly by the Police and by the Borough Commander himself on a regular basis,often via the local papers.These are invaluable and easy to follow actions which will make all the difference to whether or not we become victims of crime.

Well done Harrow Police and all our partners.We still have loads more to do so please could we all help support them in the fight against crime,in whatever measure we can.

The Borough Commander's vision of making ours the safest London Borough in three years is music to our ears and very much in line with our wishes.Harrow Police deserve a big pat on the back for the crime reduction achieved thus far,in his first year here.He has clearly found that partnership working is the key to our success in cutting down crime.
Of course,we cannot afford to be complacent and must carry on working tirelessly,hand-in-h
and with our police to make sure we achieve the target we have set ourselves.We have just overtaken Bexley and are about to go past Merton--the Borough Coammander's home ground!He is hell bent on getting us there.
Thanks to the wonderful works being carried out by all sorts of groups made up of ordinary citizens in our borough,in particular our Neighbourhood Champions,we are making it more than possible for our Borough Commander to achieve this goal,sonner rather than later.
Domestic Violence is definitely one that needs more efforts from all of us to tackle.Increased reporting is agood thing but we must ensure that we manage to make the victims safe and aslo help PREVENT this in the first case.
We hope that many more "Street briefings" will be held on our street corners as they have gone down a treat with local residents and made our neighbourhood policing gel in a more meaningful way.Well worth the money and time spent,not to mention confidence in the local bobby going up smartly.
We hope to see many more initiatives where the local public can step up and assist our police officers to keep our local neighbourhoods and borough free of crime.
PREVENTION is really important as is following tips fed to us regularly by the Police and by the Borough Commander himself on a regular basis,often via the local papers.These are invaluable and easy to follow actions which will make all the difference to whether or not we become victims of crime.
Well done Harrow Police and all our partners.We still have loads more to do so please could we all help support them in the fight against crime,in whatever measure we can.Sonoo Malkani